Spring 2009 Page 1 Botanic Garden News The Botanic Garden Volume 12, No. 1 of Smith College Spring 2009 Madelaine Zadik “T he tulip is the sexiest, most capricious, the most various, subtle, powerful, and intriguing Room. Many thanks to the Museum of flower on Earth.” These are the words of Anna Art for framing them for us. Pavord, opening speaker for this year’s Spring In our display case are other tulip- Bulb Show. A mainstay of flower shows and related books lent to us by the garden displays, the tulip has come a long way Mortimer Rare Book Room. Flora’s from its humble origins in central Asia to Feast: A Masque of Flowers (1889) is Tulipa ‘Carmen Rio’ becoming a beloved spring icon. Could you opened to the tulip and hyacinth, two of Photograph by Madelaine Zadik imagine spring without tulips? forty full color lithographs in the book Horticulturist and writer extraordinaire Anna Pavord dazzled everyone with her by Walter Crane. Each page presents an talk, The Tulip: The Flower That Made Men Mad. It was more performance than allegory of a popular flower as human, lecture and demonstrated that although tulipmania might have taken over Europe in clad in flowery garments with a short the early seventeenth century, passions today still run quite strong as far as the tulip whimsical verse. Reproductions of is concerned. (For more about Anna Pavord’s visit, see page 7.) During the several of these (see page 6) were tulipmania period in Europe, fortunes rose to soaring heights and then were quickly scattered through the bulb show, to lost, perhaps similar to the Wall Street turbulence we are everyone’s delight. Curtis’s currently experiencing. Most sought after were flowers that Botanical Magazine (1804) boasts were streaked, feathered, and flamed in contrasting colors. a beautiful painting of the cape These patterns were often quite unpredictable and much tulip, and Enchanted Tulips and later were discovered to be caused by a virus. (I won’t Other Verses for Children (1914) continue with the Wall Street metaphor.) features a lovely tulip design on Anna Pavord’s words continue to illuminate the history the cover. A special treasure is A. of the tulip and espouse its virtues, now in the form of an Gislenii Busbequii omnia quae exhibition in the Church Gallery. TulipMania: Five extant, published in 1633, which Centuries of Mystery and Madness was organized by the documents the travels and Chicago Botanic Garden and was curated by Anna Pavord. experiences of Ogier Ghislain de In her book The Tulip she writes, “The tulip does not Busbecq as Ambassador to disappoint. Its background is full of more mysteries, Turkey. It includes the first dramas, dilemmas, disasters and triumphs than any definitive reference to the tulip in besotted aficionado could reasonably expect.” Richly Western literature. colored and illustrated panels tell this fascinating story. While the Bulb Show is now Complementing the exhibit are exquisite lithographs by past, the exhibition will be on Rory McEwen, from Wilfrid Blunt’s book, Tulips & Flower Piece (1616) view until June 2, 2009. We hope Tulipomania, on loan from Smith’s Mortimer Rare Book by Ambrosius Bosschaert you’ll get a chance to see it. Botanic Garden News Page 2 Spring 2009 New Membership Rates and Benefits Botanic Garden News is published twice a year F or the first time in seven years, membership rates will increase for the by the Friends of the Botanic Garden Friends of the Botanic Garden, along with those of the other three Smith of Smith College. College Friends groups (Athletics, Museum of Art, and Libraries). The The Botanic Garden of Smith College change will be effective May 1, 2009, bringing us in line with current rates at Northampton, Massachusetts 01063 other regional and national institutions. We have resisted increasing 413-585-2740 membership rates until now, maintaining them at the same levels since 2002, www.smith.edu/garden while our expenses have kept rising. However, if we are to continue offering a Director Michael Marcotrigiano vibrant schedule of public events and educational programming, including Manager of Education and Madelaine Zadik exhibitions, speakers, flower shows, publications, and interpretive signage Outreach and brochures, we must raise our rates. Manager of Living Elaine Chittenden Collections “Memberships provide us with a significant part of our budget,” remarked Conservatory Manager Rob Nicholson Michael Marcotrigiano, director of the Botanic Garden. “We feel extremely Administrative Coordinator Sheri Lyn Peabody lucky to have your support, and we are grateful that your generosity, even in Office Assistant and Tour Pamela Dods AC ’08 tough economic times, continues. I trust that you understand our need to Coordinator change our rates. We can assure you that we are careful to use the income in a Summer Internship Gaby Immerman prudent manner.” Coordinator Project Specialist Polly Ryan-Lane All membership benefits will continue, including free and reduced Curricular Enhancement Nancy Rich admission at 200+ gardens around the country, as well as members hours at Consultant the Bulb Show, and free audio tours. We have added a new benefit for donors Greenhouse Technicians Nathan Saxe at the contributor level and above — you will receive a computer screensaver Steve Sojkowski with delightful images of the Botanic Garden and our collection. Z Chief Arborist John Berryhill Chief Gardener Tracey A. P. Culver New Rates effective May 1, 2009 Asst. Curator & Gardener Jeff Rankin Student & Recent Alumna* $20 Gardener Manuel Santos Individual $50 Household $75 Friends of the Botanic Garden of Smith College Advisory Committee Contributor $150 Sustainer $500 Lisa Morrison Baird ’76, Co-Chair Patron $1,000 Clara Couric Batchelor ’72 Champion $2,000 and above Molly Shaw Beard ’54 Susan Komroff Cohen ’62 *graduated in the last 5 years Paula V. Cortes ’70 Donna S. De Coursey ’72 Paula Deitz ’59 Nancy Watkins Denig ’68 May Botanical Festivities Elizabeth Scott Eustis ’75 Missy Marshall ’72 Lynden Breed Miller ’60 lants are the backbone of life on Emily Mobraw ’87 EarthP and an essential resource for human Pamela Sheeley Niner ’63 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander ’44 well-being. Despite our reliance on plants, Dee Flannery Phillips ’73 as many as 100,000 species are threatened Barbara Palmer Stern ’72 with extinction in their native habitats Shavaun Towers ’71 around the world. We know that you Ellen Wells ’91 appreciate the value of gardens and the work we do, so Marcia Zweig ’75, Co-Chair we hope you will celebrate National Public Gardens Day Ex Officio: Carol T. Christ, President, Smith College on May 8 by visiting us or using your membership card Botanic Garden News to visit gardens in your area. On May 18, gardens around Editor and Designer Madelaine Zadik the world will be observing Plant Conservation Day. Editorial Assistant Constance Parks When visiting here, you can pick up a copy of Botanic Garden Logo designed by A Plant Conservation Checklist for Gardeners, or you Margaret P. Holden, copyright 1999 can download a copy at plantconservationday.org/ Color photos in this issue and past issues may be downloads/checklist.pdf. A plant conservation book list viewed on the newsletter page of our website: is available online as well: plantconservationday.org/ www.smith.edu/garden/Newsletter downloads/book_list_complete.pdf. Z Botanic Garden News Spring 2009 Page 3 Am I Blue; Color and Hue in an Exotic Vine Rob Nicholson H umans as a species tend to rely mostly on visual signals to move through and function in the world. We have accordingly Strongylodon is a rampant developed a highly refined vocabulary for describing what our liana known as tayabak or eyes perceive and for what we need to convey to others around bayou. Liana is a French us. Most of us are conversant with a basic color vocabulary, but term, common in tropical professional color users have a much wider lexicon. I still ecology, for thick- struggle with which color chips are cerise or mauve, let alone stemmed tropical vines bimini and puce. that snake through the The organization of color into charts with agreed-upon names understory to the tops of has a long history starting in the late 1600s. The Englishman the canopy, clasping and Richard Waller composed a color chart, a grid of 119 colors, titled entwining around forest the Table of Physiological Colors Both Mixt and Simple (1686). trees until they break He was attempting to standardize colors for use as accurate through to the sun. The descriptors of objects in the natural world. This was also a time deforestation of large when bookplates were hand tinted, so such a resource would tracts of Philippine forests prevent depictions of red pumpkins and blue tomatoes. has reduced the Color presented as gradients or segments of a round design, abundance of jade vine as color circles or color wheels, came soon after with Isaac Newton this species’ habitat has being one of the first to formulate the concept in 1706. A pair of been greatly reduced. The color circles appeared as an illustration in the manual Traité de la International Union for peinture en mignature (1708). Since these early beginnings, many Conservation of Nature systems of color organization have been attempted, including one Strongylodon macrobotrys, jade vine in (IUCN) Red List of by Blanche Ames Ames (Smith class of 1899). Two common Palm House. Photograph by Pamela Dods Threatened Plants (1997) color systems still in use include the Munsell color system, dating from 1905 with noted the species as vulnerable, while subsequent updates, and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Colour Chart, Philippine botanists consider it threatened first published in 1932. In horticultural circles, RHS is the standard and, although and are studying its seed reproduction.